U.S. DOT

Today is the deadline for state DOTs to allocate at least half of the transportation money they received under the economic stimulus law, and Smart Growth America marked the occasion with a study of what types of projects are getting that cash.

We now have in our hands the 775-page Surface Transportation Authorization Act, which was released yesterday by James Oberstar (D-MN), chairman of the House transportation committee. It is, in many ways, a remarkable bill -- a blueprint for how transportation planning and infrastructure construction might undergo a significant shift away from the mindsets that have dominated for the past half-century. There is a lot to like in the bill.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is asking Congress to extend the existing federal transportation law for 18 months, averting the coming insolvency of the nation's highway trust fund while putting off broad-based transport reform for as long as the Bush administration did in the days surrounding the 2004 election.

The federal DOT has just released its guidance for states seeking a share of its $8 billion in high-speed rail funding -- and tucked in the rules are standards that could prove crucial to the project's success.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's statistical arm today released its latest tally of airline travel, showing that the number of nationwide plane passengers has decreased from the previous year for a record 13 straight months.

DC Velocity magazine has just released a lengthy interview with Norman Mineta, the Bush-era transportation secretary and former Bay Area Democratic member of Congress.

This morning much of the nation's news outlets are devoted to the demise of General Motors, which represents the fourth largest bankruptcy in U.S. history and the largest of any industrial titan. Perhaps most entertaining of all the articles is P.J. O'Rourke's onanistic fetish piece about horsepower and the "masculinity" emblematic in the growl of American muscle cars, in which he bemoans the passing of the automotive giant as the emasculation of the American Dream. 

It's a happy Friday for transportation wonks: the White House has nominated Polly Trottenberg, executive director of Building America's Future, as assistant secretary for policy at the federal DOT.